NEW YORK -- David Chang—the chef behind the Momofuku empire—is opening a "nonrestaurant restaurant," a branded kitchen called Ando that offers only delivery upon demand, said a Restaurant Business report.
Chang, who also has a fast-growing quick-service restaurant (QSR) concept called Fuku, is launching the venture in partnership with Expa, a startup lab built by Uber co-founder Garrett Camp.
Ando, named after instant-ramen creator Momofuku Ando, will start serving New York City this spring, Chang told Fast Company.
Customers of Ando will order their meals via a smartphone app developed by Expa. UberRush, one of the ride-sharing service’s delivery businesses, will handle the food delivery.
“We have a pretty big vision for it,” Expa partner and Ando co-founder Hooman Radfar told Fast Company. “But our focus is very much delivery to delivery, meal to meal, neighborhood to neighborhood, until we get it right.”
This isn’t Chang’s first foray into a nonrestaurant restaurant. He invested in and has served as chief culinary officer for year-old bike-delivery service Maple, one of the pioneers of that channel. He remains an investor in Maple, which dishes out $12 lunches and $15 dinners, and insists that there is room in the market for both services.
To start, Ando will deliver to the Midtown East area of New York. Pricing and exact menu details are not yet available. But users can expect three exclusive cookies from Christina Tosi of Milk Bar, as well as a mix of Asian and Americana flavors from J.J. Basil, the chef overseeing Ando’s food.
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